Every year, manufacturers take a step back and see what they can do to more finely tune their snowboards for that perfect, exciting feel. They take feedback on boots and analyze how they can make them softer to the touch, but more supportive and user-friendly. Then, there are the outcasts of every product line: bindings. Yeah, every few years, they get a new high back or maybe a heel strap with a “bold” new shape and in some new colorway. Really, though, bindings are the last product that gets any love.
In reality, even the worst binding out there is decent, but there are bindings that will open your eyes to a whole new style of riding that you never thought possible. Do you enjoy a good tweak? The Rome Katana is for you. Rome’s new AsymWrap chassis has unleashed a whole new realm in lower extremity maneuverability, so much so, that it should be illegal.
Instead of a full-wrapping aluminum heel hoop, which surrounds your foot like a SWAT team circling a sketchy mobile home, the AsymWrap hoop on the Katana wraps the entire instep of your foot from your big toe around to the outstep of your ankle. This leaves lots of open space to your outstep where both the binding and your boot can flex to the max, making for a responsive feel heel- to-toe, but with a surfy lateral experience. So, if you like pressing your nose to the max, or poking like a fiend, this is your vice.
Rome Katana Unisex Binding – $379.95
As a complement to Snowboard Magazine Platinum Picks: The Best of ‘22, we’re excited to announce a brand-new set of Platinum Pick Awards that pay particular attention to engineering and design innovation. This selection of gear is filled with creative concepts that eschew the expected in favor of redrafting the status quo. While the nuances are specific, the goal of each product in Platinum Picks: Design Innovation is the same as those
in The Best of ‘22— to amplify your good times whenever you’re on hill.
